Manufacture of shoes



March l2, 1946. A. ATLAS MANUFACTURE OF SHOES Filed June 5, 1942 2 SheejbS-Sheel'. l I

...u ull .awww

March 2, 1946.

A. ATLAS MANUFACTURE OF SHOES 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed June 5, 1942 @m NJN NN NN Patented Mar. 12, 1946 oFFicE MANUFACTURE OF SHOES Arthur Atlas, Leicester, England Application June 5, 1942, Serial No. 445,925 In Great Britain January 23, 1942 2 Claims.

This invention relates to the manufacture of shoes, which expression is to be regarded as used in a generic sense so as to include boots and slippers where the context admits, andcomprises an improvement the object of which is to provide a shoe of a novel construction as will be hereinafter described.

The invention is advantageously applicable to shoes the construction of which involved the use of crepe rubber for covering the edges of the soles and the sides of the heels, the idea being to obviate the use of such material in view of the present limitation or discontinuation of supplies.

A shoe constructed in accordance with the present invention is provided with an internal heel instead of an ordinary external heel so that the heel is covered or enclosed by the upper material of the shoe. That is to say, the said internal heel is located Within the quarter of the shoe which is made deeper than usual to accommodate the heel.

The heel may be o-f the at or wedge type and may be either of one piece character or of builtup form.`V It may, for example, be made of a single piece of Wood oi' may be composed of an appropriate number of lifts of wood, leather or leather board or like articial substance suitably shaped. Alternatively, it may consist of a single piece of resilient material, or it may consist of or include layers of such material, for example cork, or a composition of cork 'and india-rubber.

The shoe may be completed by the welted, lock-stitch, machine sewn, stuck on, o-r any other conventional method of construction. For example, the shoe may have a bottom construction which includes a platform or middle sole or soles and an outer sole. The platform or middle sole or soles may be of composite material consisting of cork combined with rubber, and the outer sole may be either of similar material or leather.

It is mainly the intention to carry the invention into practical effect in connection with ladies and children's shoes but the invention is not to be regarded as limited in this respect.

If desired. the improved shoe may be provided with an external heel tip or lift of india-rubber, leather or other suitable material.

A specific example of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings, wherein,

Figure 1 is a side view of a for-m of ladies shoe constructed in accordance with the invention,

Figure 2 is a side view of a last of conventional character with an insole and associated internal heel located thereon in readiness for the lasting operation in the manufacture of a shoe such as that shown in Figure 1, and

Figure 3 is a longitudinal sectional view of the lasted component of the said shoe.

Like parts are designated by similar reference characters throughout the drawings.

Referring to Figure 1, it will be seen that the shoe is provided with an internal heel 2 of the dat type which is enclosed within the upper 3. The quarter of the shoe is, of course, made deeper than usual to accommodate the said heel. Thus, the conventional depth o-f the quarter of a shoe of the general character depicted would be that indicated at a, whereas to provide room for the n heel 2, it is necessary to increase such depth to the extent indicated at b. The bottom construction of the shoe comprises merely an outer sole 4, say of leather, which is stuck on. If desired, although this is not essential, the particular shoe illustrated may be provided with an external lift such as that represented at 5 in dot-and-dash lines.

The characteristic steps in the method of making this shoe will now be briefly described with reference to Figures 2 and 3. First of all, the heel seat portion of a leather insole 6 of substantially uniform thicknessv throughout is initially split into two thicknesses or layers 6a and 6b. The split is made in such a way that the layer 6a lwhich is lowermost in the finished shoe is considerably thicker than the upper layer 6b. The last mentioned layer is reinforced and,

' stilTener 8 assists in imparting to the insole the required curvature. The `two .layers are now separated, and the flat heel 2 is inserted between them and initially secured to the insole by adhesive. Conveniently, the heel is built up of a suitably shaped block Il of cork, a co-rk lift I2 and a lift I3 of leather board orvlike artiilcial substance.

The prepared insole 6 with the heel 2 attached.

thereto is now placed upon a last-such as that shown at Il in Figure 2-having a conventional bottom curvature, whereupon the upper is lasted to the insole by means oi lasting tacks Il (Figure 3). In this particular example the upper 3 com,-

prises a lining I8, an outer layer l1 of upper' material and, between the two, a toe puff I8 and a counter stiffener I9 both of any suitable form and material. After removal of the last from the complete lasted component, the internal heel 2 is subsequently further secured by stitching 20 (see Figure 3) which extends right through the piece 1, the layer 6b, the heel 2, the layer 8a and the upper material.

If desired, a sock 2|, having a piece 22 of sponge rubber or similar resilient material applied to the underside thereof in the heel region, may be inserted and secured within the lasted component. I

What I claim then is:

1. The manufacture of a shoe with an internal heel and in which the usual external heel is dispensed with, which consists in initially splitting the heel seat portion of a sole, separating the upper and lower layers of material thus provided and locating a heel between the said layers, then applying the combined sole and heel to the bottom of alast, and then lasting the upper so that upper material is secured beneath the aforesaid bottom layer of the sole thereby locating the said heel within the lasted component before the last is slipped.-

2. The manufacture of a shoe with an internal heel and in which the usual external heel is dispensed with, which consists in initially splitting the heel seat portion of a sole, separating the upper and lower layers of material thus provided and locating a. heel between the said layers, then applying the combined sole and heel to the bottom of a last, then lasting the upper so that upper material is secured beneath the aforesaid bottom layer of the sole thereby locating the said heel within the lasted component before the last is slipped, removing the complete lasted component from the last, and subsequently further securing the internal heel by stitching which extends right through the upper material, the lower layer, the heel and the upper layer.

ARTHUR ATLAS. 

